Oregon pushed around the Cowboys. Ran the ball at will: 194 yards rushing in the second half. Popped the OSU offense with a series of vicious hits; Zac Robinson and Dez Bryant were the fife-and-bugle corps by game’s end.

"The first quarter, we go out, hit ’em in the mouth,” receiver DeMarcus Conner said. "We let that go away. You gotta practice like you’re going to play the game.”

Which is why there will be nothing soft about OSU’s August workouts. The Cowboys don’t go full pads until today, but already practices are a tough-man contest.

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Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and columnist. Tramel grew up reading four daily newspapers — The Oklahoman,...